 
The pH reading for our salt & vinegar Pringles mixture was a value somewhere around 4 to 5, so we'll say about 4.5.
This makes salt & vinegar Pringles just slightly more acidic than straight vinegar. As we mentioned on the first page, the chemicals that cause the burning sensation are acids in solid form. When they dissolve in the small amount of saliva on your lips, they form a very concentrated acidic solution. Particles of the solid chemicals also remain on your lips, and continually turn to liquid acid as they get wet. The result is that your lips, which are very sensitive to heat, and easily burned, are continually bathed in liquid acid while you are eating the chips. It's no wonder, then, that damage will occur to the skin if you don't wash the particles away by drinking something, or wiping your mouth with a wet cloth. 
Here's a Pringle up-close. You can easily see the chemicals adhering to the surface of the chip, and in this tiny particulate form, they dissolve easily in saliva, giving you the immediate taste of both vinegar and salt. We tried to remove the particles without getting bits of chip, as we did with the hygroscopic chemical powder in diapers, but we weren't able to dislodge enough to use. Incidentally, Pringles are made from potatoes which have been ground up into paste, which is then molded into a curved shape before frying. (Sort of like pressed fibreboard sheets of wood, which are actually made from tiny bits of wood shavings). Other potato chips are actual slices of whole potatoes. 
Now the bad news. Have a close look at the nutritional information on the Pringles label, shown at the right. Consuming a mere 12 chips (can anyone eat just 12 Pringles??) will add 131 Calories to your daily intake. Half a can? That's probably about 400 Calories. Way too many for food that you can eat so quickly.Check the fat content too! In a 12-chip serving of 24 grams, more than a third of the weight of chips you eat is fat. Perhaps we'll investigate celery next. |